Shake Before Serving: Mollydooker “The Boxer” Shiraz

If you’re a Shiraz fan, it’s likely you’ve heard someone rave about Mollydooker at some point. At the wine shop where Half-Past’s Kristen works, customers rush in whenever they hear a new case has shipped, anxiously stocking up on the Australian Shiraz. Even when we went to a local wine outlet and snagged a bottle of “The Boxer” ourselves, the cashier got wide-eyes and remarked, “You know your wine.”

So, what’s the hype? And what is Mollydooker, anyway?

We had quite the adventure getting to know this wine. Read closely: the way you drink this wine heavily affects its taste and texture.

Not yet knowing any better, we poured our glasses through an aerator, like we would any other full-bodied red. The wine had a strong alcohol smell, and a bit of a burn on the palate in the aftertaste. We noticed a peppery aroma and loved its dark garnet color.

With our aerated glass, we noted a smooth start and a stinging finish. The wine had light spices and even slight notes of mocha among the prominent dark berry flavors.

But this is where things get interesting: the bottle is actually supposed to be shaken, not aerated, before serving.

While drinking, we noticed a note on the side of the bottle leading us to the winemaker’s YouTube channel. Here, there was a video tutorial on how to properly serve the wine. We’ve shared the video below.

The ‘Mollydooker shake’ will create a foam layer of nitrogen in the bottle. After shaking, the nitrogen releases flavor back up to through the wine that it had been preserving previously. This process is also part of the winemaker’s efforts to reduce sulfides, which naturally occur in wines but can cause adverse side affects to some drinkers.

With this method instead of aeration, many of the spicy and mocha flavors we’d noted before were no longer present. It was smoother on the palate and easier drinking in general.

We hope that when you try out Mollydooker Shiraz, you’ll get it right the first time, unlike us!